Mógil is an Icelandic quintet featuring vocalist Heiða Árnadóttir, guitarist Hilmar Jensson, violist Kristín Þóra Haraldsdóttir, trumpeter Eiríkur Orri Ólafsson, and the only non-Icelandic, Belgian clarinetist Joachim Badenhorst. The music of Mógil blends elements from folk, jazz, classical, minimalism, and post-rock into a timeless, atmospheric, intimate, and mysterious universe entirely their own. Mógil’s latest album, Aðventa (Winter & Winter,2019), was inspired by the novella Aðventa (1937) by Icelandic writer Gunnar Gunnarsson (1889-1975), who wrote mainly in Danish.
Norðlandínus is Mógil’s fifth album. The music and lyrics are inspired by the paintings, writings, philosophy, and life of Sölvi Helgason (1820–1895), one of Iceland’s most fascinating cultural figures, an autodidact painter, wanderer, poet, and philosopher whose unique vision and artistic world continue to inspire generations. He was orphaned at a young age, spent much of his life wandering across Iceland, often persecuted for vagrancy, forgery of travel documents, and petty theft. Despite hardship, imprisonment, and poverty, he created a striking body of paintings and writings. More than one hundred of his drawings and manuscripts survive today, filled with ornamental lettering, floral patterns, self-portraits, philosophical thoughts, scientific observations, and poetic reflections. His work is notable for its delicate lines, vibrant colors, and deeply personal vision.
The eighteen songs are inspired by Helgason’s unique and mysterious artistic world, shaped by his paintings, words, personal philosophy, and his extraordinary life journey. Árnadóttir wrote the lyrics, and arranged the music, composed collectively by the five musicians of Mógil. The cover artwork used Helgason’s paintings.
These mysterious, timeless songs evoke Helgason’s mysterious, visionary character and his unbelievable life story. Árnadóttir’s angelic, soprano vocals lead the chamber, a delicate music, suggesting an intimate yet organic dialogue between modern, often restless and experimental sound, with its subtle timbral explorations, and Helgason’s mystical, colorful, and emotional visual art. The release of Norðlandínus coincides with the opening of an exhibition of selected works by Sölvi Helgason at the National Museum of Iceland in Reykjavik, where Mógil will present the album, adding another meeting point between Mógil’s music and Helgason’s visual art.
Eyal Hareuveni
Eiríkur Orri Ólafsson (trumpet, keyboard), Heiða Árnadóttir (voice), Hilmar Jensson (guitar), Joachim Badenhorst (clarinet, bass clarinet, keyboard), Kristín Þóra Haraldsdóttir (viola)
